SIOUX CITY (KTIV) - Sewer rates are rising for residents of South Sioux City, Nebraska.
In the first year of a two-year plan, residents in South Sioux will see a 20-percent increase in their sewer rates starting July 1. In the second year of the plan, sewer rates will go up another 10 percent. Hot Tub Pool
As a customer of Sioux City’s wastewater treatment plant, South Sioux City will pay more because Sioux City has approved a sewer rate hike to pay for a $465 million plan to refurbish Sioux City’s plant.
South Sioux City has its own wastewater treatment plant, which opened to industrial customers, this week; but, residential wastewater will still go to Sioux City for now.
A new sewer line is to be constructed to accommodate all of South Sioux City’s customers. But that may take over two years. South Sioux City’s city administrator Lance Hedquist said the rate increase from Sioux City encouraged city administration to speed up the building process on their own wastewater treatment plant.
“They’re increasing our rates by 20% in year one and then 10% more in year two,” said Hedquist. “We can’t absorb that in the time that it’s taken us to build, but we’ve asked for the design of that project to be accelerated so that we could get that done for the benefit of the residents of our city.”
South Sioux City leaders hope their plant can be fully operational by 2026, and the plant began processing industrial wastewater this week.
“For our industrial clients, they had a rate increase from Sioux City. However all of them but one is going to be using our plant, they’ll be avoiding those increases,” said Hedquist. “The timing of that is actually very good for us in terms of those industrial clients.”
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